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The DIY $10 Prepaid Cellphone Remote Car Starter
An anonymous reader writes "Wish you could start your car via your cell phone, but don't feel like ponying up the $40k for a Chevrolet Volt or $499 (plus $29 a year) for an aftermarket system from Viper? This hack relies on a cheap prepaid cellphone that has had its vibration motor surgically removed, replaced by a couple of leads triggering the car's starter. Whenever the phone receives a call it starts up the car — a somewhat dodgy proposition if a telemarketer ever gets hold of your number, but an interesting solution nonetheless. Total cost of the project: $71.03."
On many phones you can group contacts and assign different ringing profiles. You could just program in allowed numbers and set all other calls to "silent".
I personally leave my car in gear (with the reverse locked in if I leave it for extended periods of time), so this would not be very practical. :)
Wish you could start your car via your cell phone
No, not even remotely.
Heh heh... remotely...
Unfortunately, an AT&T Go Phone costs minimum $100/year. Net10 appears to cost $200/year. Virgin Mobile costs $80, and TracFone costs $100. So it isn't cheaper per year.
of your standard cell phone triggered terrorist bomb. Nothing new here.
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In my opinion this is far too cheap of a hack. You need more control. I've personally built a very elaborate text message based system that incorporates anti-theft features/GPS/door lock/un-lock and other features. Costs $11/month in a prepaid sim card. Was great fun to construct using a microcontroller and various other parts. I was planning on building a website documenting it - but I'm horrible at putting webpages together. Other than the GPS, the cost wasn't that much more - but the unit does far more for me. Working out the bugs however took a long time, so if you're in a hurry to get remote cell based car warm-up, this project is a start.
According to Consumer Reports AND The Tappet Brothers (Tom and Ray Magliozzi) it's bad for the engine to "warm up" your car by letting it run idle in park. It's also a waste of time and gasoline.
Damping absorbs vibrations. Dampening is caused by moisture.
The DIY $10 Prepaid Cellphone Remote Car Starter
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The possibilities are endless!
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Can't speak for other people, but I warm up my car so that the engine is running smoothly before I head out into the 10-degree winter weather up here in the northern U.S. It's for the engine's sake, not mine.
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You should come and experience the stop and go "driving", that constitutes Los Angeles. I dearly love manuals, and have often thought of switching to automatic. I have a performance type car, and replacing a worn clutch disc after 35k miles was not pleasant. And Yes I do know how to drive, and have taken two other manuals over 100k w/o wearing the clutch, until I came to LA. The dealer said I was doing averag in clutch wear for these cars, here in LA.
So an automatic would be cheaper in heavy stop and go commutes
..........FULL STOP.
Ok, so they did this for $71, not $10. Why even put that $10 price tag in the title? Because one component costs $10?
That makes about as much sense as quoting the price of a whole car that can remote start out of the box.
In modern cars, I keep hearing that warming up your car isn't needed, and can actually be bad for it. Note it still recommends 30-60s to let the fluids warm up, which makes sense.
What happen's if someone finds out your phone number? Can they steal your car?
No.
This is just using a cell phone to trigger the auxiliary trigger input on a remote starter system installed in the car. Basically this input just simulates pressing the Start button on the remote starter's remote.
Installed correctly, most remote starter systems will stop the engine if the brake pedal is pressed. Additionally, since the ignition key is not in, the steering is locked. Also, if the engine speed goes over a certain limit, the remote starter will stop the engine. Most cars with automatic transmissions require you to press the brake pedal to shift out of Park these days, so there's no chance of stealing the car that way.
I suppose if the car had a manual transmission, it would be possible to make it move forwards or backwards in whatever direction the steering wheel is pointed, but only at slightly over idle speed. You might be able to drive it up onto a trailer.
The problem that might come up is that most of these systems come with a pin switch that disables the system if the car's hood is opened (so you don't get your hands torn off when the engine starts unexpectedly, while changing a belt for example). Many people do not bother to install the hood pin switch. You would want to make sure it is in place and working, because a telemarketer's call could be deadly.
If the phone rings while you're driving or the car is already running, nothing happens other than the remote start will keep the engine running after you remove the key (if you don't touch the brake pedal.
Putting moderation advice in your
According to me it is bad to drive with near zero visibility due to condensation or frost on the interior of the windshield. My life trumps the life of the engine.
Anyways a bock heater or garage is the way to go, at least if parked at home.
I agree. I just scrape the ice off and drive off right away. Of course, then my windscreen fogs up on the inside due to chilling from the airflow over it, but fuck you or your kids if you happen to walk in front of me: better you die than I "waste time or gasoline", right?
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
Those guys can eat my ass if they think I'm driving around in a cold car I can't see out of. They are also welcome to scrape my windshield for me.
SNOW is not generally a problem when it comes to defrosting windows... it's ICE. Keep in mind, some of us live where much of the frozen perciptiation we get is not like the nice fluffy and powdery snow you may get. It's a totally different ball-game when there's a layer of ice on your windshield twice as thick as the glass itself. Sometimes you have to let the engine warm up enough to melt the undersurface before it can be scraped off.
Parts of this country get very, very cold in winter. It can take a long time for a car to warm up to the point that ice on the windows will melt. Weather conditions vary but I've personally given up on scraping very thick ice off of the windows a few times. Warming up the car can be the only way to get the windows clear.
I have had remote start systems in the past, but this year I installed a parking heater, which is basically a tankless water heater with a circulating pump. It runs on gasoline and warms the car's coolant up before I get in and start it. It can be operated by a remote or by a timer on the dashboard. It seems pretty efficient, as what's coming out of its exhaust pipe is barely lukewarm. Once the coolant is warm it turns on the car's heater blower and will defrost the windows and warm the interior.
It's a lot better than a remote start - uses less fuel, and there is never a cold start of the engine.
Downsides - the cost. I bought mine on eBay, brand new for about $275 from a car dealer who was going out of business. Normally these heaters are not sold directly to end users, you have to get it installed (usually at a heavy truck parts supplier), and the cost for one including installation ranges up to $1800. It took me 9.5 hours to install (at no cost other than a full day's time). Supposedly the factory installers take about the same time to do it.
Electric engine block heaters are a lot cheaper (can be under $50) - you just plug them into an extension cord, but most people can't do that in their work parking lot.
With the remote I can start my heater from up to 450 feet away (and I have). The heater I have is German made and conforms to their stringent safety standards, plus it sounds like a tiny jet engine. Similar heaters are used on big diesel trucks to provide heat when parked, in areas that do not allow the trucks to idle their engines.
Putting moderation advice in your
The problem is that most people crank their defroster to maximum fan speed and that makes the engine take forever to warm up . The secret is to put the fan on a low speed (even 1) and don't be in the car for a minute or so (while you clear the windows), then ease it up to 2 and start going. Notch the fan up as you notice your temp gauge going up. Don't use maximum speed unless your engine is at full operating temperature. Even then, very small engines in very cold weather will lose heat at maximum fan speed unless they're actually driving (i.e. the engine is under load); idling at full fan speed may still result in the engine cooling off.
I start my engine, leave the fan on low, turn on my seat warmer, clear the windows, and by the time the windows are scraped, I drive. Drive gently and easily until the engine is warmer. That way I get heat quickly and I am friendlier to the environment.
If the interior of your car is really humid and you're getting frost inside on the windows, turn on the air conditioning. This will help to sublimate the ice faster. (Keep the heat turned to the warmest temperature, of course. It'll still warm up your car - but with air with less humidity in it, which helps to remove the frost and ice.)
I think I 'd rather use a cell phone like this to remotely STOP my car in the event of theft.
Yup - I have a remote starter on my car - aftermarket.
These sorts of devices aren't all that expensive. I'd have no issues with hacking an alternative receiver (phone or whatever) into the INPUT on the unit, but not directly into the starter.
A typical remote starter does stuff like:
1. Have a sensor on the spark plug wires so that it can detect the engine RPM and figure out when the engine has turned over. It runs the starter "just enough."
2. Refuses to start the engine if it is already running.
3. Has a timer so that it won't run the starter all day if something goes wrong.
4. Has a safety interlock on the hood, so that your mechanic doesn't lose his hands when the engine cranks without warning (granted, whoever installs it might not bother to wire this up).
5. Have some kind of mechanism built in so that somebody can't just drive off with your car.
6. Has some kind of way to transition to normal operation when you insert the keys.
7. Often they have extra features like a mode that will periodically run the car for 15 minutes to keep the engine warm - for cold climates I guess (though I suspect an electrical heater would be safer).
I would never wire something like this to my car without some basic safety/control functionality. By the time you do all that you could have just bought one - they aren't actually that expensive if you install them yourself.
I'd just like to thank you for specifying your units there.
If you were blocking sigs, you wouldn't have to read this.
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=41668
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=8795
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=46193
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=131289
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=203750
http://forums.tdiclub.com/showthread.php?t=100750
I've heard them a few times give quite a bit of misinformation. They haven't the slightest clue about the differences between WVO, SVO, BioDiesel. Say that 10,000 mile oil changes are 'stupid' (It's VW recommended, they go up to 30,000 km in Europe).
Here's a better solution. This design connects to the cell phone audio output (so you don't have to open the phone) and has a DTMF decoder chip, so you send it tones to make things happen. That at least gives you some protection against random phone calls.
The Volt comes with an iPhone app that allows you to start it remotely over the mobile phone network.
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